Spring Treats

I have Chinese noodles and chocolate chips - and my sisters on the lookout for a good price on Cadbury's Mini Eggs. And then I'll be making these little gems!

The Basic Formula
Chinese noodles
2 cups (+?) Chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon Shortening
Mini Eggs

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Lightly grease a bowl and put in the bag of Chinese noodles. Melt chocolate chips in double boiler and add shortening. Pour melted chocolate over noodles and gently coat them. Pull out a portion of the melted chocolaty mass and form into a nest, approximately 2 inch across, with an indentation in the middle. I use my hands. Allow nest to set for several hours. Place "eggs" in nest and serve or display.

I'll try to get more specific measurements when I make them!

Enjoy!

T.W.

Divine....

I unwrapped the chocolate. I ate it. I read the message,"Write a real letter, not just an e-mail." I thought of a friend, and wondered, should I write her a letter? A little bit later I got an e-mail from that same friend asking for prayer; her mother has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I'm wondering if I should add Dove chocolate to my daily devotions?

(I'm not endorsing Dove chocolate. Dove doesn't know I exist. Unfortunatlely.)

Mini Mocha Meringue Cakes

(I don’t want to infringe on copyright in anyway, so while I altered the original recipe quite a bit as far as feel the first time I made it, I’m going to go even further and include the changes I would make if I did it again. Just being extra cautious! It's the kind of girl I am.)

Meringue

2 egg whites, room temperature
Pinch cream of tartar
½ cup sugar (the recipe called for superfine, I used regular)
2 Tablespoon Dutch process, cocoa
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules, lightly rolled to crush
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups whipped cream, sweetened with ¼ - ⅓ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla (I’m guessing a bit on this, since we did more cream than that at the time – some for the coffee!)

Fudge Sauce – this is an addition that I think would be simply smashing. I thought they needed a little something extra, if you know what I mean.

1. Put the egg whites in a large clean bowl, and whisk slowly until they become thick and frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to whisk more quickly until the whites form stiff peaks.

2. Sprinkle over half of the sugar and continue whisking until mixture is stiff and glossy. Whisk in the rest of the sugar a little at a time. Sift over the cocoa powder and add the coffee granules. Whisk in vanilla.

3. Trace 2” circles (I think I did about 36 using a cookie cutter) on parchment paper and then flip over and place on a cookie sheet. Carefully spread meringue evenly within circles, trying to make them fairly even and flat. You could also pipe it in a spiral pattern. Bake in a 250°F oven for 45 minutes. I pulled it out at this point and it cooled on the counter, however, I think you’re actually supposed to let meringue cool in the oven. In which case I would cut the baking time down a little.

4. To assemble, place one meringue disk on a plate, drizzle a tiny bit of chocolate sauce over disk, place a generous dollop of cream in center and press another “cookie”, bottom down, on top of cream. Drizzle a bit more chocolate sauce, and another dollop of cream, artistically placed, to finish it. Assemble all the meringue cakes and place on serving platter and then sift cocoa carefully over the tops. It is okay to get a little on the platter – it adds a nice touch!

Note: I’m not a meringue expert and these turned out very fragile so I lost a few in assembly. Over baked? The granulated sugar? Just as a note that you are likely not to get 18 mini cakes. I will probably cut down the baking time a bit if I do these again. 35 minutes and let them cool in the oven? Just giving you the inside scoop on my thoughts on this.

Chocolate Nests

A few years ago I discovered Cadbury Chocolate Mini Eggs and they have become a spring tradition. I never did Easter egg hunts as a child, but now my siblings and I do; we go all over town hunting the best prices on Cadbury's mini eggs!

I made these nests for Easter, but I don't hold them exclusively to the holiday and think they are appropriate anytime during the spring.

Incredibly simple to make they call for four ingredients: Chocolate chips, shortening, Chinese Noodles and Cadbury Mini Eggs. Next time I might skip the shortening and see if the chocolate holds up a little better. They seemed to melt rather fast and I wondered if it might have something to do with the shortening. Or maybe I just didn't let them set up long enough.

The eggs come in multiple colors but I like to use only one color per nest, it makes it a tiny bit less cutesy and a little bit more sophisticated.

Harvest Cake

I originally tried the recipe for this cake because it was so pretty, not because I expected a chocolate cake with a creamy pumpkin filling to be particularly good. But it was good, so good. It is Mum's favorite cake now. This is the first one of the fall season and I expect I'll be making a few more.

This particular cake really was very fortunate to be in existance. Almost out of butter, almost out of cocoa, and I didn't have enough honey - even though I had already halved the recipe (there are supposed to be two layers of chocolate cake). I did have enough sugar so I substituted, but I didn't think the cake was as good. The honey adds an extra richness that really brings out the chocolate.

A hike up the road and then a turn off down a grassy lane to a wild plum patch, then a little further and there was an elderberry tree. The rose hips were collected on the way back. And, Twiglet decided that those green plums had been green an awful long time and what if they were supposed to be green? They are. Ripe, tasty and very fun. I need to hike up and get some more.

It's only been a few days, but I think I'm ready for another Harvest Cake. The cupboards are restocked, except for the cocoa, which we're going to have to find a local supply for buying in bulk.

Yesterday's Dessert

In honor of my older sister's birthday (she was absent, but I will not be cheated out of cake!) I made this lovely rich fudgy cake. More fudgy than it was supposed to be because it was slightly underdone. Fortunately it wasn't yuck underdone, it was moist, wonderful underdone. I might even do it on purpose next time. It did make it hard to get out of the pan (this is becoming a bad habit), but I was able to manipulate it into a layered confection anyway.


Chocolate frosting between the layers and on top. Except for a small amount of clarified butter, I used the very last of the butter in the house for this frosting. I don't even think there was half a cup in there, but it worked wonderfully. Whew! That was a close one. It tasted quite good - I should write down what I did real quick! I'm always on the lookout for good frosting recipes made with honey.

I garnished it with a lattice pattern of natural shredded coconut and fresh lavender on the side.

It was good, very good. And it doesn't look to bad either.